Men of War - Assault Squad: Devupdate 3

[Instinct]

http://www.digitalmindsoft.eu/outcoming/devupdate/thumb/mow_a4.png

Welcome to another developer update for Men of War: Assault Squad. First of all, we'd like to thank everyone who participated in the open beta and provided feedback to us. Now we're taking this opportunity to share what we've achieved since the open beta.

Needless to say we put a lot effort into improving the game and fixing bugs before finalizing it. Many changes have been made according to the thoughts and ideas you have provided. Among these changes is improved depth and detail to the infantry combat.


We have polished the small firearms and made sure they all exhibit their historical rate of fire. We've also given the bolt-action rifles some well-deserved attention! A brand new feature of rifles is an increase in accuracy when shooting multiple times at the same target, making them even better and deadlier in long range engagements. This provides additional depth to infantry combat and a unique ability to riflemen.

Grenades behave more naturally now, by killing infantry on close hits while only wounding them slightly at longer distances, reducing the capability of exploiting grenade tossing in direct control while allowing to kill all types of infantry with one grenade.

Additionally, some special units have received more attention, like the Commonwealth ANZAC troops, now they come with a unique set of weapons, making them even more interesting and varied, giving them their own distinct advantages over other troops.

http://www.digitalmindsoft.eu/outcoming/devupdate/mowa4/screenshots/16.jpg

The minimap received some new features that make it easier to distinguish between different sorts of vehicles, so machine gun positions will be displayed differently than tanks, making it easier to recognize enemy troop movement and manage your own units.

All multiplayer maps have been balanced, map points have been tweaked, as well as spawn and capture areas to provide fair and balanced gameplay. Many of these balance changes have been done as the result of the data we accumulated during the beta and the feedback you've provided, allowing us to deliver an even better gaming experience in the final version.



Also, Gamezone.com has also published a short preview of Men of War: Assault Squad, here. (http://pc.gamezone.com/previews/item/men_of_war_assault_squad/)

Assault Squad is making drastic changes to the usual game of metal warfare. Low level Shermans are about all the average player will see, and if you can field even a single Tiger, stand proud. You earned it. In place of tanks, Assault Squad is overhauling the infantry to be more effective. [...]


Last but not least, we'd like to introduce you to our plans regarding the future of the game after the release. Since we see a lot of potential in the game and since we are a smaller developer studio that is still very closely connected to its game and community, we want to provide great post-release support with free content updates such as new vehicles and units. However at the same time we'll work on download-able content that will be available for purchase, adding on to the full game and expanding the existing package of Skirmish or Multiplayer maps. You can obtain the DLC and play them together with everyone who did so as well, however they won't stop you from playing with non-owners on basic maps. Some new content that is developed for the DLC will be provided for free to the gaming community in patches. So instead of pumping out one expansion after another, we'll stick to this game and make it better and better over time with your support. Details about what the DLC will offer, will emerge at a later point.


In any case, don't forget to let everyone know about the MoW:AS Steam group! (http://steamcommunity.com/games/mowas) With 20.000 members we'll reactivate the open beta and add the Soviet Union as playable faction!
http://www.digitalmindsoft.eu/outcoming/devupdate/mowa4/screenshots/17a.jpg (http://www.digitalmindsoft.eu/outcoming/devupdate/mowa4/screenshots/17.jpg)

So stay tuned!

[The Soldier]

It has been excellent so far, except the part about fielding even a single Tiger, some person fielded three tiger tanks and a king tiger in the same game. Not to blame anyone, though. Still, the sherman is a valuable accet during a game with the USA. It's a cheap, mass-production vehcile that gives just about anyone the upper hand at the begining of the game.

[JWL B]

Greetings,

Good to hear that progress is beeing. I am a big fan of the MoW Franchise, and will keep an eye on any further updates. Altough IMO this is one of the better WWII strategy games, there are still some points that reuqire attention.

-Main menu. It's your first impression with the game and to be honest it looks just awfull. Why not make more exotic and more 'cool' instead of just the standard soldiers..? Why not something more like this? It's just an example but the germans sure did have style, so why not make more use of that..?

read the forum rules before posting pictures


-Try to keep it as accurate as possible. I am a collector of german WWII militaria, and nothing is just more anoying then seeing fantasy uniforms (If I recal correctly the sniper ace is a good example). If you have any questions you should definetly take a look here: http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-uni ... ermany.htm (http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-uniforms/germany.htm) and http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/index.php

-The voice acting (believe that has been taken care of)

-Make sure the player doesn't has to command to many footsoldiers. I can remember some of the RT maps, and those were just over the top. Too many infantery and you'll quickly lose overview and the tactical element.

-ADD A GERMAN CAMPAIGN IN THE EAST!!!!

Well that's about it, I just named a few things that entered my head; remeber it's just my opinion. I'll just stick to the improvements, because when I have to name all the good thing it will take a while. Keep up the good work..!!

Best,

JWL B

[Cyclonus]

this steam group stuff is really annoying

[BUffaloe]

well, we, the community have to thank you for this great game, and the ability to test it for free! i´ll surely buy the game at release, i cannot wait for it to become cheap. i love the gameplay, and the graphics, which many people complain about is actually quiete nice IMO. of course it´s not the highest technical level, but it is stil good. it just feels right.

i have only 3 points, where i´d be really glad to see changes.

1) unit skins, i hate those greyish tigers, and blue shermans, i actually never heard of tanks beeing used wihtout camouflage painting, (maybe with some little exeptions)

2) sounds: i think many weapons deserve better sounds. most of the time you can´t even hear the sounds of the battle, for example i see a mg fire, but can´t here anything. the second point is that the sounds arent that great. for example, al mgs seem to sound the same way. it´s kind of a flapflapflap. but they had very different sounds, (i´m sorry, but i´m used to marcant weapons sounds from the blitzkrieg mod for coh, and FH 2 ^^).
also the tank guns could be a bit louder and more impressive. this would jsut give the game a better feeling.

3) the frontline mode: in vmow, this was a great game mode but now it´s pretty boring.
maybe i´ll open a own thread for this to explain it more detailed.

[Zeke Wolff]

About 20 Tiger I´s were delivered to front units painted dark grey (with no zimmerit). Shortly thereafter, they were all repainted in camouflage colors. The other 1334 Tiger I´s that were produced during the war, were either painted in plain dark yellow, or with camouflage colors.

During the early war years, the standard color of the German Army vehicles, were Dark Grey, and it wasnt until late 1942, early 1943 that they started to paint the vehicles in dark yellow.

Blue Shermans?

~Zeke.

[BUffaloe]

hm, some shermans look a bit blueish to me. i think the firefly for example has a blue looking skin.

edit: hm, ok i looked at some screenshots, and couldn´t find a blue looking sherman XD. forget what i said about them. but the skins were my least important issue anyway.

[triumph]

I've got the feeling that the reviewer only did co-op. X_X

[dsmigiel]

Does anyone have a guess when Assault Squad will be released? :roll:

[Zombie Penguin]

Alright I'm really happy with all the great work of you developers but I hope there will be also:
*REPLAYS!!!
*new sounds
*new skins (skin selector for your army?)
*new maps (a ton of)
*bug fixing on tank armour (sometiems 90 degree angle is bugged)

(basicly I really only need replays)

[The Soldier]

Does anyone have a guess when Assault Squad will be released? :roll:

Perhaps in Q1, maybe Februry or March, I dunno.

[Evilsausage]

Alright I'm really happy with all the great work of you developers but I hope there will be also:
*REPLAYS!!!
*new sounds
*new skins (skin selector for your army?)
*new maps (a ton of)
*bug fixing on tank armour (sometiems 90 degree angle is bugged)

(basicly I really only need replays)

Yup same here replays is the thing that is most needed. In my eyes MoW AS will outclass any RTS/RTT game out there when it comes to multiplayer.
You guys have done a great job!

[akida007]

can men of war add ancient weapon support, for example ,sword, bow etc

[[OoO]No.Mam]

...Details about what the DLC will offer, will emerge at a later point...

i hope/pray DLCs dont splitt multiplayer into small groups. :huh:

[UsF]

Does changes to the minimap include directional indicators for North, South, West and East? Would be very welcome for easier planning and communication.

[Evilsausage]

No.Mam]

...Details about what the DLC will offer, will emerge at a later point...

i hope/pray DLCs dont splitt multiplayer into small groups. :huh:


Yeah im also kinda worried that the DLCs will spiltt up the comunity even more :/
I don't mind if you make DLCs for singleplayer, but new material for MP should be free.

[CzaD]

“A brand new feature of rifles is an increase in accuracy when shooting multiple times at the same target, making them even better and deadlier in long range engagements. This provides additional depth to infantry combat and a unique ability to riflemen.”

I hope it is a unique feature of all rifles, not just the bolt-action ones? There is not reason why semi-automatic and automatic rifles should not have the same increase in accuracy when firing at slow rate, one bullet at a time.

Of course, that would not apply to automatic rifles firing full auto all the time. And that leads me to the issue of historical fire rates. In AS, I saw only one rate of fire for each hand gun, regardless the range the gun was firing at. And that is obviously a wrong weapon behavior, coz automatic rifles used a rapid fire rate only at close ranges, using a slow rate of fire at longer ranges to produce more accurate shots and save ammo. The same goes for SMGs: they sprayed bullets at close range decimating whole squads and used short bursts at longer ranges to increase their accuracy.

[Spearthrower]

At this rate I think Men Of war Assault squad will be a game I will be playing for a long time. I will also Buy DLC.

The change that this company has shown is DRAMATIC, and it could honestly be the new Relic of RTS games.

[Federico 76]

. And that is obviously a wrong weapon behavior, coz automatic rifles used a rapid fire rate only at close ranges, using a slow rate of fire at longer ranges to produce more accurate shots and save ammo. The same goes for SMGs: they sprayed bullets at close range decimating whole squads and used short bursts at longer ranges to increase their accuracy.

Well, that's more a wrong AI behavior, since this is more related to the soldier which carry the gun than to the gun itselfs... In the game, the accuracy of automatic weapons will slightly decrease when you do full-auto fire, as it's supposed to do.

For what concern the new rifles feature, they didn't say that it was made for bolt-action guns only, so i think it will probably work with semi-auto rifles too.


By the way i like how those devs listen to the community, i think this should be the future of PC games development... Too bad that there are only few devs teams acting like that in the world. Keep it up! :toast:

[CzaD]

Instinct wrote all AS weapons have their historical rate of fire. But what he really meant was probably their max rate of fire. For SMGs, MGs and for automatic rifles it is easy to say; for semi-automatic it is how fast you can pull the trigger and for bolt rifles how fast you can operate the bolt. However, I would not confuse historical rate of fire with max one, coz that depended on a lot more then just how fast soldiers could shoot. When we talk about rifles we should think about training, orders, range, individual aiming skills, suppression, the soldier’s physical condition etc.


i think it will probably work with semi-auto rifles too.
I hope so. I just figured it coz he mentioned only bolt rifles and those are the ones who really need improvement. I would say accuracy, damage and range should be the way to go, coz riflemen were trained as marksmen. In AS rifles still have vanilla range, however SMGs enjoy an increased range making rifles less effective.